What did you do? (Infatuated fae #2)

22. Present Day

22

PRESENT DAY

Caly

I pulled the thin tank top over my head, letting the soft, gray fabric of my nightshirt drag against my damp skin.

After our return from the pits, I couldn’t help but be angry with myself. Saving Tarani was not my responsibility. I wasn’t even supposed to like Eli, but I’d failed there too. Marrying him would make things move so much quicker, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do that to him.

The shower had helped my sore muscles but not my mind.

It wasn’t until I burst into my empty room and was hit with the familiar jolt of disappointment that I figured out why.

Walter was waiting in the room for me, alone.

Every time I walked in since Mendax had left, I’d expected to see him talking with Walter on my bed. Had wanted to be with me one final time. I could never bite or scratch Eli in bed. He would know in two seconds what a twisted monster I was, and then he’d leave me too.

I didn’t get the feeling Eli was vanilla, but I would bet an entire ocean of tolkiens that he would worry if I told him how dirty I really liked it. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what being with Eli would be like. Would it be weird?

A shadow flickered in the bathroom corner, and for a second, I almost looked to see if it was Mendax.

But it wasn’t, and it was for the better. He wasn’t mine. He wasn’t even a friend. He was a problem that needed to be solved. He couldn’t be here. Not now. He would ruin everything I had waited my whole life for.

A thought I’d played with reared up: What if I did go to Unseelie? A part of me missed the dark castle, even after all of the horrors that happened while I was there. What if I went there? With Mendax? If anyone could help me, it would be him.

My neck cracked as I bent my head to my shoulder. No. This wasn’t the time to be sloppy. I would never trust anyone ever again, not fully.

I squeezed my sister’s ashes and tucked the pendant back under my shirt, then shook out my folded cotton pants from their heap on the counter.

Sudden warmth ran over my back and down my thighs as someone pressed against me from behind.

I dropped the pants to the floor with a gasp, immediately filling with excitement as Mendax pressed his chest against me and linked his hands over mine on the counter.

“I am leaving you here and returning to Unseelie,” Mendax said haughtily into the shell of my ear.

“What? You’re leaving?” I mumbled in shock as I turned to face him.

The sharp edge of the counter bit into my ass as he stepped into me, caging me between his hands still resting on the sink. His icy-blue eyes were angry as they trailed up my exposed legs, pausing on the black thong I wore.

“You’re disappointed?” He smiled slightly, causing his scarred dimple to crease.

God, he was gorgeous.

“I’m just…” I didn’t know what to say. I was very disappointed he was leaving me. Shocker—even he didn’t choose me.

“The castle is under attack. The Fallen are too strong now. I need to return,” he murmured breathily. “They have gained control of the Ladon dragon and?—”

“They have a dragon? But…the castle? Will you—will it be all right?” I asked.

I couldn’t hide the feelings that tore through me at everything he just said. What if something happened to him or Walter?

He looked furious, even though I could tell he was fighting to control it. The pulse in his neck tapped wildly. Even his eyes looked like weapons as they glared at me.

I realized his wings were spread.

Uh-oh. That meant one of two things. Danger and power rolled off him like I’d never seen.

My stomach tightened with lust.

“I’ll come with you and Walter. Maybe I can help?” I said so softly I wasn’t sure I had even made a sound as I stared at the small lines on his lips. What the fuck am I saying?

He let out a breath as though it had been trapped inside his chest. “I-I can’t take you with me. Not until we get your heart. It’s not safe for you to be there. I can’t risk something happening to you. You’d be the only one without any powers,” he stated.

There it was.

Once again, I was only a weak, powerless fool.

“I can’t lose you. You’re the only reason I fight. Those thrones belong to us. I will return for you in a week’s time.”

“No. I’m going with you,” I said defiantly. I was so sick of everyone underestimating me.

“You will stay.”

“Fuck you. I—” I shouted as the wind was taken from my lungs. He slammed me against the wall and pressed his face down against mine.

“Be very careful, little hellhound. I haven’t a thread of control left, and I’m contemplating killing you as we speak. If I am unable to have you all to myself, then maybe no one should have you,” he rasped.

“You know I’m tied to Eli?” I breathed.

He smiled a cruel smile before he roughly lifted me up and over his shoulder, carrying me out of the bathroom. The door slammed against the bedroom wall, knocking the painting down as he carried me through the room and into the hallway.

“Where are you taking me?” I snapped.

I was a little frightened of him like this. He was coming undone, and he wasn’t just anyone. He was a Smoke Slayer with the ability to slither inside of your mind. At his core, he was a predator, and he always would be. When you are at the top of the food chain, everyone else is prey. The question was simply when he would get tired of playing with you, not if—never if.

I didn’t know if he was about to fuck me or kill me, and at this point, one might cause the other. Regardless, I wasn’t going to go down easily—for either of them. What fun was that?

I reeled back and punched him in the back as hard as I could.

“If you’re thinking about fighting me, don’t. I am not Aurelius. I will hurt you, and I will like it. Be a good girl, and later I’ll give you a knife to stab me with. You know how much that turns me on, hellhound,” his husky voice rumbled.

That was where I had stabbed him before. The thought sent a shiver coursing down my spine. I knew Mendax felt it too by the way his hand tightened over the back of my thigh.

Not once had I ever truly wanted him dead, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t kill him. There were a lot of people dead who I wished were still alive and with me. What I really wanted was to tell him all my dirty little secrets and light the heavens on fire after he handed me the lighter—but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

I just couldn’t trust him. That was the problem with villains: you could never trust them.

Muffled groans and cries caught my attention.

What the hell?

A hazy wall at both ends of the hallway blocked a small army of Seelie guards from stepping any closer, but they were trying. Shouts and bangs echoed back and forth as each end fought to break down the barricade.

My stomach dropped. “They know you’re here? What—what happened? Where is Eli?” I asked, gripping his wings in a panic.

He stilled immediately.

Smoke, barely visible, rose from my palms and melted into the smoke of his wings, which had begun to whorl and coil over my hands and arms like a sensual caress.

Somehow time stopped.

The next moment I blinked, and my thighs were wrapped around Mendax’s waist, my back pressed against the hall wall. The Unseelie prince shackled just below my jaw with his large hand.

He was fast.

“What happened is you infected my soul and placed yourself in an exceedingly dangerous position. The sole person I would ignite the entire world for is tied to the one person I would give an entire world to burn.”

He pressed his body into me so hard, it was difficult to think. Icy-blue eyes glowered down at me, causing the small scar above his brow to crease slightly.

Like always with Mendax, tension pulsed low in my stomach as I homed in on the feel of him pressed against me. It was impossible to think about anything but how deep he could fuck me at this angle.

I was broken and dark, and that just proved it.

Horror washed over me when I saw the Seelie guards again. Every one of them paused to watch the dark prince pin me against the wall. They would think we were working together to betray Seelie.

“Get off of me. Is this all payback for what happened in Unseelie? Well, congratulations, you have just ruined everything. All that I’ve worked for is ruined because of you. They’ll kill me before I can get even get to him. You have no idea what you’ve just cost me!” I screamed, pushing my throat against this hand as hard as I could.

His face showed no hint of remorse as the creases of his eyes wrinkled slightly. “Pet, if you think I’ve ruined your life, you don’t give me enough credit. Things are just getting started.” Mendax tightened his grip around my throat, squeezing out air as he leaned down to brush my ear with his mouth. “And I promise you, there is no other threat to your life. I will be the only one that kills you.”

My eyes ping-ponged between his face and the guards to my left.

“What’s the matter? Afraid they’ll see me do this? You belong to me now. You are my possession.” He moved the tips of his fingers over my mandible and angled it toward him. The hand not on my jaw squeezed my ass.

My eyes darted to the guards. There was no getting out of this alive.

Mendax squeezed my face as his mouth hovered barely an inch from mine. His hand trembled slightly, and I got the feeling it was because he was trying not to snap my neck.

He pressed his mouth to mine in a devouring kiss, still holding my face.

There was probably a puddle beneath me, I was so wet.

He pulled back and turned my face to the side, toward the guards, as he pressed his mouth to my ear. “ No one touches my possessions without consequence.”

He licked the side of my face with one long swipe before he turned my face back to him. Unbridled rage twinkled and danced in his pale eyes, causing me to question just how far he had been pushed this time. I’d never seen him as ready to strike out as he was now. He looked absolutely feral.

Malum Mendax had snapped.

“Where is Eli?” I asked again, suddenly a lot more worried.

I was alive, so I guessed he was too, but that didn’t bring me any comfort considering the look on Mendax’s face right now.

He grabbed me around the waist, tucking me under his arm, into his side, as if I were a sack of potatoes, and carried me down the hallway until we entered the smoking room. He kicked the door with his large black boots, sending it ricocheting off the wall before loudly slamming it closed once he had stepped through.

The angry fae carried me past a large set of mahogany shelves lining the back wall before he dumped me on the ground.

I didn’t trust him at my back right now, not like this. Refusing to take my eyes off him, I watched nervously as he picked up a decanter from the dark wood bar and poured a glass to the brim with deep-purple liquid.

“You couldn’t have at least let me grab pants?” I grumbled as I clamored back onto my feet.

“You won’t need those,” he stated, casually moving to hand me the purple drink and return to pour himself another. “You will, however, need this,” he said with a sinister smile.

“You should find a new drinking buddy. I’m not interested. All hell is breaking loose out there,” I bit out, angrily pointing to the hallway.

“You’ve got it all wrong, pet. Hell is in here, where the devil is.” He winked. “Last chance to drink your mead,” his gravelly voice purred as he walked past me.

In my brief encounter with the libation, faerie mead had been wild. In my brief encounter with the libation, faerie mead had made me do some wild things—including dry humping my best friend.

Pounding and mumbles caught my ears.

The Seelie guards must have been getting closer to breaking through the barrier. It would only be minutes before they entered and I was killed, taking Eli with me. It had all been for nothing.

My nails clicked against the glass before I tipped back the pretty liquid, draining the glass.

I would need it.

I turned to Mendax.

He had positioned himself on a small leather love seat with legs spread wide and an arm draped casually over the back like he owned the castle and everything in it.

And then I saw them.

Eli and Walter sat on the ground, bound and gagged with familiar black smoke. Their backs leaned up against the small sofa positioned at a ninety-degree angle from its twin. The one in which Mendax leisurely sat in.

Eli struggled and fought to undo his bindings; his wide eyes stared at me in pure horror. Walter looked more relaxed, not moving except to lock eyes on Mendax with irritation. Whatever was happening didn’t seem like it was a surprise to Walter, who knew his cousin far better than any of us. I noticed that both he and Eli didn’t shift into their animal forms to get away. Whether they were unable to or they simply knew better than to try was beyond my knowledge.

I clamped my mouth shut, turned around, and walked back to the counter to pick the glass decanter up. Popping the top out, I lifted it to my lips and proceeded to gulp down several huge swigs of the liquid.

“Kiss me,” Mendax ordered, his low, rumbly command rippling across the stale room.

“Get fucked,” I fired back, setting the decanter back down. Already, I could feel the faerie mead’s effects lighting every nerve in my body. What did it matter now?

“You first,” Mendax purred while taking a drink.

I moved past the umbra of darkness to kneel beside Eli, giving Walter’s thigh a gentle squeeze. The shifter had become something different to me over the past few weeks. It felt like he was the only one who heard me sometimes. Foolishly and for reasons I couldn’t explain, I had let Walter inside my solitary box of demons. I had shared everything with him. He was the only person I’d ever told my plan. I cried on his chest the whole night. Snuggling with him in his wolf form had been one of the most enjoyable and comforting things I’d ever done.

Eli grunted in pain, folding forward. My gasp cut like a knife through the room. Ribbons of charcoal cut into the skin of his neck, tightening as his face paled.

“Stop it! You’re killing him!” I shrieked, holding on to Eli’s broad shoulders.

My skin heated and prickled all over. Whether it was the effects of the fairy mead or the fact that Mendax was killing me right alongside Eli, I couldn’t say.

“You’re going to kill us both! Is that what you want?” I screamed. Frantically, I struggled to pull the smoke away from Eli’s throat, but my attempts only appeared to be make it tighter.

“Kiss me,” Mendax commanded.

His voice was calm, but that was the only thing about him that appeared relaxed. Blue eyes watched me like a hawk while his body pulsed with thinly veiled rage. The tension and power surrounded him like a heavy cloud. His eyes were locked on where my hand touched Eli’s chest.

This was nothing but a dick-measuring competition. Was this because he had to leave me, or had something else happened?

A thud filled the room as Eli’s body fell to the carpet.

“Enough. Stop this,” I screamed, trying to hold Eli’s limp body up. “You sick fucking psycho, stop. Please!”

Walter closed his eyes, and a strained snarl escaped his lips; he was obviously in pain as well.

“You are, aren’t you? You’re killing all three of us,” I said, a heaviness in my own chest.

He couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him hurt them like this.

Hysterical, I ran to where Mendax reclined and hurled my fists repeatedly into his hard chest until I fell to the ground between his knees, now fighting for breath as I continued to try to whale on him.

Eli and I were barely clinging to life.

“ Kiss me ,” his deep voice rumbled as he leaned forward, his face now only a breath away from mine.

If my eyes alone could have killed him, they would have in that moment. But I was in no position to be stubborn right now, and unfortunately, I always wanted to kiss him.

My hand struggled to grasp the black tunic stretched across his chest, but I pressed my mouth to his. I couldn’t believe I was kissing him while Eli lay crumpled and dying.

Immediately, my senses filled with the woody taste of spiced smoke sweetened with mead. As soon as our skin touched, a storm erupted inside of me. I felt invincible.

Loud gasps filled the air to our right, and I pulled away, seeing Eli had regained consciousness and Walter’s warm eyes were open, giving Mendax an angry glare.

“This is a game to you,” I whispered, still holding on to his shirt. “Our lives mean absolutely nothing to you.”

Wood splintered and cracked as Mendax moved his hand from the now-crushed armrest of the seat.

“Your life,” he said, leaning back once more, “and death mean more to me than anything . Because of that, I must leave you here.” In his other hand, the drinking glass shattered with a high-pitched crunch. Obsidian blood dripped between his fingers as he dropped the bloody shards to the floor.

The broken pieces of my heart clenched.

He didn’t want me to get hurt in Unseelie, but leaving me behind with Eli and being unable to kill him was making him crack.

All the more reason why I couldn’t be with him. Ever.

“Mendax, you and I, we couldn’t… We would never work,” I said, still kneeling in a tank top and thong between his strong legs.

It didn’t matter what I really wanted—it had to be this way. He had to leave me alone; he’d already messed everything up.

Eli had chosen to tie himself to me. He even knew where my heart was located. I hated to do this to him, but he would have to help me finish things. God, would he hate me once this was all over with. This was what I deserved for falling for him when we were kids. I never should have let anyone get that close.

“Mendax, in some other lifetime?—”

“Stop talking and use that sinful mouth for wiser things,” Mendax ordered.

“What don’t you get?” I asked, shocked by both his words and the way my body ignited lasciviously at his order. The mead was definitely doing something. “Leave me here, and don’t come back. Move on, Mendax. I have nothing for you. I am nothing. You have been bonded; you can become king now! Why do you waste your time with me? I am a weak, powerless monster,” I screamed, wiping tears away with the back of my hand.

Mendax slid himself down from the couch until he was eye level with me, cupping my face in his palms.

“What do you not understand, Calypso? I will lie, cheat, steal, and kill just to be close enough so I can taste the spent breath from your lungs. You are my only soul. Without you, I am merely a hollow cavity of flesh, a ghoul that will haunt and track your every step and gambit. Whether you accept it or not, you and I belong together. No two creatures were ever made more perfectly for one another,” he whispered against my lips while his hands held my face tightly.

“I can’t be with you. I have to be a good person—a true Seelie. I have to be able to enter the Elysian Fields! Unseelie go to Tartarus when they die—I can’t go to Tartarus. I love Eli, but I think I’m somehow in love with you,” I blubbered as hot tears poured down my cheeks and over his hands. “I can be a good person, you can’t. You are the Unseelie prince, for sun’s sake! I need to end up with someone like Eli.”

Standing up, he brushed the shattered bits of glass from his black pants. Both of his irises were blown now; muscles pulsed and flared in his jaw, causing him to appear more tense than he was before.

Pushing onto my feet, I snagged Walter’s eyes. He gave a small nod of reassurance. I stepped closer, afraid to look at Eli. We could carry an entire conversation without words, and I was scared to death to see what his eyes were saying now.

I froze when the husky voice rolled over me.

“So you’re a good person and you end up with someone like Eli? Is that right? The hero?” he questioned. Reclining on the sofa again, his muscular legs parted, his arm stretched along the back.

“I—”

“Well, good girl , come get on your knees. Your good guy is about to watch the bad guy slide his cock down your throat.” He swiped his thumb across his full lower lip with a devilish smirk. Blood from his lip smeared across his shadowed face. “Every man in this room knows you want it. Don’t waste time pretending otherwise.”

My eyes rounded in shock. “Fuck?—”

“Do it now, or I’ll kill Aurelius,” he cut me off.

Everything in the room stilled until my thundering heart was the only thing I could hear. Mendax meant every word, and all of us could feel it.

Eli shifted slightly in the corner of my eye when I slowly stepped between Mendax’s legs. A quick glance at Walter and Eli caused my cheeks to redden when my knees landed on the cold marble. Heat washed over me as I touched the warm closure of Mendax’s belt.

Walter turned his head away. My eyes snapped to Eli’s. His handsome face was full of intensity and frustration. The chivalrous gaze almost concealed the lust in his eyes when they took in my nearly naked body kneeling before Mendax.

Walter looked back when I fumbled with the leather belt before pulling it all the way off. Folding it, I moved to tuck it under the sofa. Later, I would use it to choke Mendax for what he was?—

“Give me the belt.” Mendax grinned, removing it from my hands.

I wasn’t sure if the faerie mead was to blame for my reaction when I saw Walter’s and Eli’s eyes hungrily looking at me, but I had to clench my thighs together for fear they could see the effect it had on me.

The guards down the hall continued to yell and fight against the shield; they could barge in at any second; it made me feel…dangerous.

Wanted.

Free.

I tied my hair up in a knot on top of my head and nervously lifted my eyes up to Mendax’s while I timidly ran my palm over his crotch. Feeling the hard outline of his cock under my hand caused me to squeeze my thighs together again and hope no one noticed.

But every eye in the room watched me.

It was perfect.

Feeling more confident now, I pulled down his pants until his thick cock sprung free.

My hand wrapped around his shaft, feeling the warm veins and soft, velvety skin rub against my palm. The tip was rosier. A droplet of pre-cum glistened under the dim lamps of the smoke-filled room.

Greedily, my palm moved up and down the length of him.

“I said your throat.”

My eyes darted to the left to see he had removed the smoke from Walter’s and Eli’s mouths. It looked like they hadn’t noticed that their mouths were unrestrained, as they were simply hanging open. Their hungry eyes were busy watching me.

My eyes flicked back to Mendax, and I wondered if he realized the smoke was off their mouths, but his amused eyes answered me.

Watch how they hunger for you. We are infatuated with you.

A sharp breath cut through my lungs at Mendax speaking through the bond.

Powered by curiosity and horniness, I licked my lips and moved them over Mendax, covering his shaft with my mouth until I gagged. I hadn’t taken all of him, and I doubted I could, but suns, did I want to unravel him.

A hand brushed the base of my neck, sending chills across my skin. He gathered the few locks in his hand with the rest of my hair. The action sent a million tiny tingles all over my scalp and body as I slid my mouth back down his length.

I grew more and more eager, nearly forgetting anyone else was in the room. Mendax’s small, almost inaudible moans made me suck and hum deeper, with the hopes of causing another one.

“You are everything to me, Caly,” Mendax said through a shortened breath, his hand pulling at my hair. “I’m going to be rougher with you, pet. Will you be a good girl and take it?”

I pulled my mouth free from his cock to shoot him a challenging glare. I nodded, maintaining eye contact with him while I spit on the head of his cock and slurped my mouth around him, watching him hiss and curse when I lightly drug my teeth along his sensitive skin.

His hand tightened painfully around my hair, holding my head in place as he fucked my throat. I struggled to breathe, gagging as my eyes watered and tears ran down my face.

“She is not yours, Aurelius. She will never be yours. For eternity, she is only mine.” He let out a breathy heave of air while he continued thrusting into my throat. “Do you see how divinely she takes me, Walter?” he growled breathily. “It’s because she is fit perfectly for me every way. Can you see how flawless she is? Her throat was made to fit my cock. If you ever so much as think about doing something to ruin that, I will rip out your throat, brother or not.”

Mendax tugged my head back, away from him, and his cock pulled out of my mouth with a wet pop.

“Lay back,” he rasped. “Remove the rest of your clothes and lean against that chair.” He nodded slowly to a wing-backed chair, diagonal to the sofa the men leaned against.

“I—”

“Now, pet. I can’t hold the guards forever, and I still need to make certain a few things are understood before I leave you.” He peeled his gaze from me to focus on Eli while he tucked himself back into his pants, leaving them undone, so his still-hard cock was barely concealed.

Eli glared back at him in a silent challenge. The corner of Mendax’s mouth quirked up into a self-assured grin.

“You will never be able to deter me from loving her. Without killing the both of us, you will never ever be able to tear us apart from one another. Our tie is as unbreakable as my love for her.” Eli clenched his jaw as he looked to me. “And I don’t need to make an embarrassment of her to prove that.”

I flinched. My nails dug into my palms until they bent, shame tingling my cheeks for having experienced any pleasure at what was happening, embarrassed that I had somehow let my untamed bits and pieces peek out in front of him. I didn’t want Eli or Walter to think of me that way. I wanted to be good and wholesome in their eyes—not the broken, empty murderer that I really was.

I needed to officially be deemed Seelie.

Embarrassment and shame tried to take me, but the faerie mead drowned it in a pool of need, leaving me only with a throbbing ache between my thighs.

Power.

An embarrassment. Eli’s words echoed in my head.

My eyes snapped to Mendax, who was watching me with a tight smile.

You need to learn as much as they do the power you hold over them…over me. I will not leave you here without me until they understand—you are the one in control while I am gone.

They are both fighters. They will respect and bow to your every whim and command if you dominate them.

They have no control over you or anything that you do.

Butterflies tickled my insides.

The beat of the guards pounding down the walls of the hallway felt like the heavy beat of drums.

To Walter and Eli, it appeared that he was claiming and dominating me, but he wasn’t—at least not entirely. He was showing me how much power I held without actually possessing any powers.

Mendax let out an arrogant chuckle. “For being her best friend, you really don’t know her at all.”

My neck cracked, it had snapped back to look at Mendax so quickly. He calmed my hazy worry with a knowing wink.

“Yes, she’s always laughing and smiling with you, isn’t she? Oh no, wait. That’s me,” Eli bit out. “You bring her only anger and pain. She’ll get tired of that real quick.”

Mendax’s wings flared, sending a haze of smoke tumbling through the room. Eli’s bindings cinched, causing him to let out a groan.

“We get the point, brother,” Walter grumbled, sounding bored. “We will not touch her. Now recall your smoke, and we will return to Unseelie. They are in need of us.”

“Calypso, I advise you to take your clothes off before I tear them off,” Mendax snarled, keeping his eyes on Walter.

I peeled off my shirt; my sister’s pendant swayed across my chest. My nipples pulled tight at the cold air and hungry eyes.

“Walter, you will stay and protect her. I’m unsure how Queen Saracen will retaliate knowing that Caly didn’t kill me. I need you to keep her safe. You’re the only one I almost trust.” Mendax’s voice softened while he slowly looked my body over.

“What do you expect me to do, Mendax? Be her cellmate again? She is as good as dead here now that they think she betrayed them, and you know it,” Walter spat.

“Do anything necessary. A dungeon cell might keep her safe and alive. I will handle everything else when I return. Make certain she is not hurt.”

Mendax turned to me. “My queen, touch yourself while we watch. Our attention is fully yours.”

Completely naked, save for the ashes of Adrianna that hung from my neck, I stood fully on display in front of the three handsome fae.

With confidence, I sat down in front of the large wing-backed chair, feeling the soft fabric brush my back. The pounding rhythm of the guards’ efforts and the heavy breathing of the men poured into my ears in a sensual song. Even the small tink of my necklace shifting around on its chain lent its own erotic harmony. It felt so good to sway my hips to the song, slowly rolling my body like one long wave while my fingertips inched down the front and sides of my breast and stomach. I watched all of their darkening eyes while my hands caressed over my stomach once more, this time dipping down between my legs.

Every place their eyes touched, my body felt it like a pair of hands gliding over my skin.

Mendax leaned back farther onto the couch, letting out a low hum of approval while he freed himself from his undone pants, grabbing his cock roughly, his eyes boring into my skin.

“Isn’t my queen fucking beautiful, Aurelius? Walter?” said the Unseelie prince hoarsely. “She is the only thing of value for any of us now, do you understand? To you, she is everything , and you will stop at nothing to keep her out of harm’s way.”

“Of course, but—” Eli spat.

“Come on, pet, don’t be shy now. Spread your legs and let us look at the sacred cunt we all worship,” Mendax cut in.

I pointed my toes on the floor and spread my knees wide, eager to see Eli’s shocked reaction. He had only ever thought of me as a gentle, delicate girl and was always trying to shelter and protect me. I wondered if his thoughts had changed now.

My eyes trailed up the well-built body of my best friend and met Eli’s heavy stare. I had expected to see him shocked and embarrassed as he watched me touch myself, but instead, his face looked rigid, angry, and full of lust—like he was having a difficult time not touching me.

Holy, fiery suns.

I didn’t think I could get more turned on than I was that second.

“She’s worth everything. Isn’t she, Aurelius?” Mendax’s gravelly voice ripped into the tense room, the words spoken with a sharp and dangerous edge.

Aurelius nodded, moving his eyes from me to shoot a deadly look at Mendax.

“Let her actions feed your lustful eyes and my warning fill your thick skulls: Should either one of you touch what is mine while I am gone, it will be the most regrettable decision of your short life. That I promise you. As for you, Aurelius.” He paused for a moment, struggling to speak through a snarl. “I swear to the stars, even if I can’t kill you, you will wish I had,” Mendax growled.

A low moan slipped out of me as my fingers continued their task. Mendax was evil; there was no doubting that, but having my hero, my villain, and my most trusted companion watch hungrily as I touched myself was making me melt in a puddle of arousal.

All I had ever wanted was for someone to love me and never leave, someone to protect and care for me without overlooking what I was capable of on my own.

Right now, I had three someones. Through the cloud of lust, I realized how incredible that was.

“Tell her how beautiful she looks, Walter,” Mendax whispered, though there was no mistaking this as a command.

“She—ugh—you’re beautiful, Caly. I think we should leave, Mendax?” Walter said with a polite nod.

“Look at how he watches with hungry eyes, pet. I want you to crawl over there and give Aurelius a taste of what’s mine,” he said with a demented smirk.

The dimples popped on both of his cheeks.

A shiver crept up the back of my neck, and my mouth fell open. Was this a trap? Mendax was far too possessive to allow another man, especially his enemy, to touch what he thought was his.

My insides swayed with a foreign, euphoric feeling while my curiosity grew. Was he testing us for some reason? Was this really just to see how I reacted with them? I didn’t know, but I wanted to see both of their reactions when I did it.

The polished floor squeaked, tugging against the skin of my leg as I slowly crawled to where Eli was bound.

“Seriously? You are so fucked up.” Walter shook his head at Mendax with a scowl.

Mendax canted his head to the side and gave a wolfish smile.

What was he going to do if I touched Eli right now? I didn’t want Mendax to hurt him…or me.

“Go on, straddle him, love. He’s all tied up. He can’t hurt you,” Mendax chuckled, knowing that wasn’t a deterrent for me.

Euphoria clouded my reasoning. In the back of my mind somewhere, I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, especially not with Eli and most certainly not right in front of a tense, raging Unseelie on a hair-trigger, ready to kill every one of us.

My eyes caught Eli’s, and I hoped to gauge what was going on in his mind, but his eyes had locked on the ceiling. I bit my lip hard, the painful pinch causing me to let out a sigh as pleasure tingled over my mouth. The tang of blood should have grounded me a little, but unfortunately it only made me more aroused.

Hearing a rumble of appreciation, I snapped my gaze to Mendax.

“I knew you were made for me,” he said joyously. He stood up, fastening his pants as he walked over to the bar and poured another glass of mead, then took a long drink.

“On fae, mead makes them calmer, removes some of their stress or anxieties. But non-fae, especially humans or those without powers to absorb the magic, they get encouragement for the things they stifle. Many of them die because they can’t stop dancing, and it kills them.” He held up the glass with a wink. “It brings out their natural…more primal desires, if they have any. You may have the half of your heart with no powers, but it is still an exceptionally fiery half, it seems.”

I turned back to Eli, who was still staring at the ceiling. Suddenly I hated that he wouldn’t look at me—even though I was touching his thigh, and it was probably a trap. I also hated how much Mendax thought he knew me.

Determined to spite them both, I threw my leg over Eli and seated myself on his lap, tightening my knees against his hips. My fingers felt the warmth of his skin through his thin white shirt. He tightened his jaw, still refusing to look at me. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to feel his eyes on mine.

I knew it wasn’t because he didn’t want me. I could feel his hard length pressing through his pants against me.

“This is your chance, Aurelius. She’s all yours,” Mendax said as the binds of smoke evaporated from around Eli’s body, freeing him completely.

“Do. Not. Touch. Her.” Walter bit out the quiet warning to Eli as he continued to glower at Mendax.

Suddenly filled with nerves, I pulled my hands back from Eli’s solid chest and turned my head to look at Mendax.

“I don’t?—”

Mendax’s body turned to black smoke, disappearing from where he sat, before reappearing so close, my bare back pressed against his legs. I gasped as he fisted the back of my hair, wrenching my neck so that I was looking straight up at him.

“So you are aware as well, this will also be the only time you are ever allowed to touch him again, so you might as well get it out of your system now, pet,” he purred before lifting his glass to his lips. “Perhaps you need another drink.”

My neck wrenched farther back. I could feel the tingle and pulse of every hair on my head as he bent to tower over me, where I kneeled on Eli. Mendax’s sky-blue eyes and evil mouth were only a few inches above mine. He lowered his bottom lip, and cold mead poured from his mouth into mine. I fought to swallow with my neck at this angle and began to choke and gasp for air before he finally let go of my hair. I straightened, swallowing the remnants while sending streams of purple liquid down the front of my bare chest and splashing on Eli.

“Let him have a taste,” Mendax laughed as he returned to the couch, looking maniacal and devious.

I ran my fingers over the dribbles of mead on my chest, then down over top of my sensitive clit, rolling my hips when my fingers made contact. Eli’s length pulsed underneath me, causing me to groan.

“Eli,” I whispered.

Softly, I grabbed his face with my left hand in the hopes he would look at me. Movement caught my eye when his hands flexed at his side, still looking at the ceiling.

“ Trust me, friend. Don’t do it, no matter how badly you want to,” Walter warned again sternly.

I pulled my two fingers from inside myself and lifted them to Eli’s handsome mouth, pressing them inside.

His eyes flickered closed and his hips bucked ever so slightly. He grabbed my wrist, keeping it in place while the other went around the small of my back and pulled me against him. He swirled his hot tongue around my fingers with a soft groan. Eli’s face was now only a breath away from my own.

“You don’t have to do a thing he says, Calypso, and you also have no worry from tempting me. Not a sundown has come in this castle that I haven’t been tempted by you and not acted upon it. I swear to the Ancients, I will do nothing that will put you in danger, and I will get us both out of here,” he whispered, finally looking into my eyes while holding his hands up in surrender.

The energy in the room tensed as Mendax and Eli locked eyes.

“You may experience the fire of Caly’s love now, but you’ve only just fallen.” Eli’s gaze turned to mine. “I’ve been burning for years. I can take the heat.”

Straddling him in all my nakedness, my jaw dropped.

Eli was my hero; he always had been.

Mendax was my villain, and he always would be.

Deep down, I knew I loved them both. But the problem was, who was I? Did I belong to the night or the sun? Was I a hero or a villain?

Stunned, I glanced to Walter, still tied next to Eli.

“Don’t look at me,” Walter responded with a sparkle in his eyes. “The Artemi ancestors created my entire lineage. You are almost a goddess to me, and I love you in a powerful way. I respect you far more than these two ever could—but if you willingly sit naked on my lap right now, Mendax will have to kill me for what I’d do to you.” He grinned.

My panicked eyes shot to Mendax while my horny brain tried and failed to form a plan that could keep Walter and Eli safe.

“Don’t worry,” Walter replied softly. “Mendax already knows this. He also knows I’m as loyal as a—well, wolf—and I’m not the one you really want. My desire is to be a source of friendship and to bring you a sense of comfort and—I don’t know—home when you need it. You never have to be anyone around me, and I will always be here for you. Even when it’s the angry you or the imperfect you. I will always be here for you .”

Even with faerie mead pulsing through my veins, my cheeks heated at both of their admissions. I shifted myself off of Eli’s lap.

Still untied, Eli reached out in a flash and grabbed a large shard off the floor where Mendax had shattered his glass.

Worry shot into me watching Mendax’s wings widen from their slacked position.

I moved between the two of them, even though that was arguably more dangerous. Eli tossed the jagged glass to me just as the smoke returned to overlap and tighten around his body, leaving only his head free from the full cocoon of smoke.

My training was so ingrained that I immediately snagged the glass and was about to whip around and face the dominating man behind me, but before I could turn, he was on me, pressing firmly against my bare back.

Through the delirium of lust and mead, my years of brutal training lay in wait and the hand not holding the glass came up to block my throat as something moved over my head.

Mendax’s belt.

I tried to shove my forearm out to loosen the restraint, but he was too strong. He pulled the belt tighter so that my left wrist was now pulled against my neck painfully, yanking me back against him. Delicious tingles prickled around my neck and coursed down my body, brimming with such potent ecstasy, my teeth chattered.

Fighting against the intense pulsing between my thighs, I remembered the glass in my free hand and moved it down to stab his side. Mendax grabbed my wrist with the hand not holding the belt.

“So their words affected you?” he murmured into the crook of my neck.

A sharp pull of the belt forced me to gurgle and gasp. He pulled my earlobe into his mouth, dragging me backward until we were at the edge of the love seat.

I pushed my wrist away from my neck, and I felt the belt slacken slightly.

“Enough. This has gone too far. You have toyed with me enough, Mendax. Release us now , or I will carve your flesh into a chessboard and challenge Eli to a match,” I snarled.

I was fighting it but was more turned on now than before, and I had a suspicion it had nothing to do with the mead.

“Do you know the primary difference between a hero and a villain?” His warm breath brushed my ear. “The hero refuses to cause pain when given the choice, but the villain,” he rasped as he dropped hold of the belt and spun me around to face him, still holding my wrist. “The villain knows pain only allows for more pleasure.”

He held my wrist tightly, no doubt leaving a mark on my skin, pulling me down to him while he returned to his favored seat. Gracelessly, I fell onto his chest first, tossing my thigh over his lap and straddling him to gain any footing and recover my upper half. My intent was strong; I was filled with determination—but as soon as my bare, throbbing skin brushed against his barely clothed length, I stopped thinking completely.

This close, his whole visage was hostile and blanketed with grim captivation.

I could feel the firmness of his desire nearly parting me. At this angle, there was no possibility of hiding how turned on I was. I’d likely already left a wet spot on his pants.

Mendax moved my wrist until it was at his throat and pressed it firmly against the top of his black tunic. The glass I had previously refused and now couldn’t drop was forced against his skin, pressing out a few small beads of black blood. My mind swirled like a hurricane, while my tongue felt dry from panting. He shifted slightly, his hardness brushed against my bare center again, and it took every grain of fight in me not to roll against it.

“Do it. Carve the flesh that makes you feel everything you wish it didn’t,” he whispered.

“I’ve stabbed you twice already. Do you really want to play a game of chicken with me, Prince?” I said huskily, wishing it was from the belt still hanging from my neck and not arousal.

His eyes darkened, glistening with so much danger, I could hardly find the blue. Pushing my wrist down, he slowly dragged the glass down the front of his chest, slicing open his shirt and a shallow layer of his skin.

I grimaced and tried to pull my hand away, but he continued his ministrations until his muscular chest was under my palm instead of the shirt.

“I’ll eagerly die loving you, Calypso,” he said, grasping my hip and pulling me forward so the base of his cock pressed against me.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head, as it felt like a thousand sparklers had ignited inside me. A moan escaped my throat and I rocked forward, the tip of his velvety skin cresting his pants to tease my wetness.

“I—gods, I am in love with you, Mendax,” I panted, completely lost to the ecstasy.

He swore while grasping both my hips, lifting me just enough to free his hard cock.

“Yes!”

I cried out in pain and pleasure, feeling a thousand tingles enrapture my body when he pushed inside of me. Lost in the feeling of him sliding deeper into me, I hadn’t realized I was still squeezing the glass until red blood dripped down my wrist and Mendax’s chest, where the sharp edge had sliced into my hand.

“I will return for you,” he whispered. “From the deepest corner of Tartarus, I would return for you.”

I continued to ride him, experiencing the euphoria of fully letting myself go. “I won’t be able to go with you then either,” I muttered with a smile.

“You will,” he grunted, closing his eyes as his head fell back against the sofa.

“Oh god, Mendax.”

A symphony erupted in the room. Everything twinkled and faded around me as the strongest orgasm of my life rippled over me like an atomic bomb.

“That’s it, beautiful.” He quickened his pace. “Remind them who you belong to.”

His hands tightened on my hips, holding them against him, moaning as he came inside me. I felt his cock pulse as hot cum filled me.

The dark prince groaned when he pulled out of me. His cum dripped out and down the inside of my leg, and he moved his hand to catch it, wiping it up with his fingers and rubbing it all over my pussy. His palm massaged the spent cum all over me until I was gripping his shoulders and moaning.

“Come all over my hand like a good girl—that’s it.”

Another orgasm slammed through me while he continued to rub his cum back into my sex.

With his other arm, he gently moved me from his lap onto the couch, kissing my forehead as he stood.

Mendax walked over to where Eli sat bound and gagged.

Embarrassment reddened my cheeks when I realized he had been so close and angled against the chair so he couldn’t look away as Mendax and I fucked.

The ribbon of smoke was removed from his mouth as Mendax stood over him with a smile.

“I’ll ki—” But it was all Aurelius got out the second his mouth was free before Mendax cut him off by roughly grasping Eli’s jaw, wrenching it open, and smearing his cum-soaked hand aggressively onto Eli’s face, shoving him backward with the force.

“Have a taste of that too, sunshine. Taste me all over her now? That’s the only way it’ll ever be from now on, so fuck off.”

He turned to Walter and released his smoke from the shifter. “Walter, find her heart. I will return once Unseelie is safe. As of now, we will work together to keep her safe.” He scowled at Eli. “Hear my words, Seelie, because it will be the only warning I give you: Calypso is mine and mine alone. Whatever demon, god, or witch I need to find to sever your tie to Caly, I will. Know that the instant I can kill you without it affecting her, you are dead.”

Mendax shadowed in front of me, lifting me into a tight embrace and kissing me tenderly on the mouth. “Until I see you again.”

He tightened his squeeze on me for a moment before giving Eli and Walter a hard look and fading into a cloud of black smoke, taking with it Eli’s bindings.

The halls thundered with movement, and the door was blasted open with a ball of orange light.

The guards had come to kill me.